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Geeking Out on the Logo

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Re: Geeking Out on the Logo

#101

Post by tlrobinson »

GuiA wrote: post #2

This is a brilliant move by Marissa Mayer. She knows from experience that having the best of the best (not only in engineering- but also in design, marketing, etc.) is necessary for your success in tech. Large tech companies depend on their employee's pet ideas and projects, the fact that they might be well known in some niche for some open source project or blog, and so on. In a way, if you're a large company that n…

This might be true if the logo were actually good, but it's not. It looks like it was designed by a machine.

Re: Geeking Out on the Logo

#102

Post by meerita »

rmrfrmrf wrote: post #84

Several annoyances here: 1. Showing hand-drawn versions of your logo in what clearly is set in hardly-modified Optima (a typeface designed way back in the 1950s) makes me cringe. Why show fake process work? 2. No one is impressed when the manager does the job of their employees. For one, it implies that they don't trust their employees, and secondly, it makes the job of designers look like a fun hobby that anyone can…

Totally right. That's why the design by consensus is always wrong. The brand is now biased. MM had a reputation of being intrusive even on silly details making the design process horrible and with crappy results.

From this I remember various things you may remember too:

1. The Google favicon. They did thousands and the one they choosed was crappiest one. They had to change it later. 2. The Google favicon with blue. Also, they did silly tests. Now that thing is gone.

I think this post resumes it well http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html

Re: Geeking Out on the Logo

#103

Post by nostrademons »

sho_hn wrote: post #82
hbbio wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She should at least spend her week end with her child.

Children are surprisingly capable of not falling over dead or turning into monsters even if their parents spend a little time pursuing other interests now and then, you know. Also, be honest: Would that thought have even occured to you if Yahoo! had a male CEO? If not, why not?

The thought occurred to a lot of folks when Steve Jobs said he had a biography done "so his kids would know him". A few of them (eg. Jeff Atwood) even changed their behavior as a result.

Re: Geeking Out on the Logo

#105

Post by weland »

jyap wrote: post #98
weland wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I beg to differ. > Through these actions and posts, shes's showing how cool and fun Yahoo! is. Look, the CEO works on weekends with a small skunkworks team on designing logos, and nerds out on the subtle details like any cool designer would do. Through these actions and posts, she looks like someone I wouldn't want to work with, or for. I avoid people who claim "I am not X, but I know enough to be dangerous" like the…

Wow, the negativity. > Yahoo looks like a big company, don't they have some CEO-ing to do? When you decide you want to make a career out of pushing papers and borderline lying to investors, stick to it. Do you purposely have you head in the sand or haven't you heard of all the policy changes and various acquisitions? Besides, branding is "CEO" type work. > Initial success is obviously to be applauded, but don't be ov…

> Besides, branding is "CEO" type work.

Branding is CEO type work. Logo design isn't. Encouraging people to put all their resources into their work is awesome. "Jumping into the trenches" (oh, over the weekend!) isn't what the CEO of a multi-billion company does, it's what an arrogant, career-oriented boss who can't delegate does to compensate for his apparent lack of sufficient involvement.

Leading an agenda of technological innovation is also "CEO" type work, but would you like to do pair programming with the CEO (who hasn't worked on anything longer than a thousand lines in half a decade) on a Sunday evening?

> Hmm, let's see. In the past year, Yahoo!'s stock price is up 91.6%. That's pretty good "initial success".

That's one year. It's something well worth the "initial" mention. That's less than a fifth of the time Carly Fiorina spent at HP, and she also did a lot of important strategic moves.

Re: Geeking Out on the Logo

#106

Post by goblin89 »

petercooper wrote: post #99
GuiA wrote: post #2

This is a brilliant move by Marissa Mayer. She knows from experience that having the best of the best (not only in engineering- but also in design, marketing, etc.) is necessary for your success in tech. Large tech companies depend on their employee's pet ideas and projects, the fact that they might be well known in some niche for some open source project or blog, and so on. In a way, if you're a large company that n…

This is a brilliant move by Marissa Mayer. In some ways, but I think Yahoo! has essentially proven their brand is so weak that it can be represented by a new poorly thought out design every day and, well, no-one cares. If Apple, McDonald's or Coca Cola did something similar, they'd be committing brand suicide and attracting a lot of flak, but with Yahoo it's just "Oh well, another new Yahoo logo, who cares?"

> If Apple, McDonald's or Coca Cola did something similar, they'd be committing brand suicide and attracting a lot of flak

I remember Apple's iOS 7 Video, where some guy was geeking out about the grid they've designed and are using for everything, from icons to UI layout.

> but with Yahoo it's just "Oh well, another new Yahoo logo, who cares?"

To be fair, Yahoo didn't change logo for 18 years, according to the OP. It's pretty big news.

Re: Geeking Out on the Logo

#107

Post by andyjohnson0 »

snom380 wrote: post #93
andyjohnson0 wrote: post #85

I'm not a designer and know nothing about logo design, so let me ask: Is there an objective way to evaluate a piece of design such as this new logo? Or does it just come down to personal like/dislike?

Well, what you can do is ask people who have worked with logo design, won awards for logo design etc. Of course, these people may be biased, but at least they have more experience in evaluating logos than others. So in general, if many of them like it there's a good chance it's actually good. The other thing you can do is to look back. In 10, 20 years, it might be more obvious whether a logo was successful or not. Bu…

"Well, what you can do is ask people who have worked with logo design, won awards for logo design etc."

"Of course, these people may be biased, but at least they have more experience in evaluating logos than others"

This just raises the question of how these experts evaluate a logo.

I understand that academic art criticism [1] has developed frameworks for evaluating works of art - genre, cultural impact, relationship to preceding works, etc. But a logo isn't art - it is almost entirely functional and used for (mundane?) concerns like brand identity. I can appreciate that some logs have existed for long enough that they have a historical context (e.g. Coca-Cola) but I don't see how this helps evaluate its primary purpose.

Any graphic designers want to comment?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_criticism

Re: Geeking Out on the Logo

#109

Post by sfjailbird »

drstewart wrote: post #58
bowlofpetunias wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being Dutch, I associate the bevel with "American bad taste". Design is sacred here, logo design doubly so. This would be ridiculed.

Since when are bevels an American phenomenon? You know that bevel is a French word, right?

American product logos typically employ more effects, like swirls, gradients, shadows, perspective, highlighting, etc. than European counterparts. My personal opinion is that they usually look better and more inviting. But not in the case of this logo. Holy hell does this logo suck in all sorts of ways.

Re: Geeking Out on the Logo

#110

Post by DoubleMalt »

GuiA wrote: post #2

This is a brilliant move by Marissa Mayer. She knows from experience that having the best of the best (not only in engineering- but also in design, marketing, etc.) is necessary for your success in tech. Large tech companies depend on their employee's pet ideas and projects, the fact that they might be well known in some niche for some open source project or blog, and so on. In a way, if you're a large company that n…

I disagree. The result is a brilliant demonstration on why design by committee is bad.
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